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Best diploma projects

Jury Report from the 26 and 27th of November 2016 – UAUIM – Exhibition HALL The final jury members of

Best diploma projects

European architectural medals 

038: Re-Constructing Porto: the Massarellos School of Construction

awarded with THE EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURAL MEDAL FOR BEST DIPLOMA PROJECT

Michael Lewis

Tutors: Alex Wright, Anne Claxton

University of Bath, United Kingdom

 

048: Berlin Palimpsest. Repurposing Urban Fragments for Community Agency

awarded with ACE prize for societal impact.

Rachel Tan

Tutor: Robert Mantho
Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom

 

006: A Symbiotic Relation of Cooperative Social Housing and Dispersed Tourism in Havana Vieja. Development and model for architectural prototypes.

awarded the EAAE Prize for Intensity and Courage in Problem Solving.

Iwo Borkowicz

Tutor: Kris Scheerlink
KU Leuven – Faculty of Architecture, Belgium

 

008: Chandigarh: Stone, Steel, Timber. Kindergarden in a Natural Environment

Avarded with UAUIM Award for the Artistic Quality.

Alejandro Martínez del Río

Tutors: Jorge Torres Cueco, Clara Mejia Vallejo, Salvador Sanchis Gisbert

Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de la Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain

 

The Jury also awarded three Honourable Mentions:

 

044: Muziris [re] Discover

Julián Leopoldo Gil Benegasi

Tutor: Arturo Blanco Herrero

Escuela de Arquitectura y Tecnología, Universidad Camilo José Cela (UCJC), Spain

 

058: Sub_Zero – Life Beyond Parking

Dionysios Koutsioumaris, Argyris Chronopoulos, Georgios Fiorentinos

Tutors: Andreas Kourkoulas, John Zachariades

National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece

 

119: Amazonia Pier: Manufacturing an Architecture of Pleasure

Julien Nolin

Tutor: Jakob Knudsen

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Denmark

 Jury Report from the 26 and 27th of November 2016 – UAUIM – Exhibition HALL

The final jury members of the EAM-BDP met in the exhibition hall of the UAUIM, in Bucharest, on the26th of November at 9.30 am and were briefed by organizers on the final jury procedure.

The President of the jury – architect Luciano Lazzari – noted that all competitions rules were observed and

that there are no disqualified entries. All 120 diploma projects recorded in the competition respected both registration and format.

On these 120 projects coming from 29 countries all 5 jury members operated voting from 1 to 10. The evaluation was expressed online on the competition platform respecting anonymity. The first best 30 diploma projects were listed by the computer algorithm average. This evaluation and list was noted and validated by the jury.

The jury began by reiterating the objectives of the competition that seeks to acknowledge the

BEST DIPLOMA PROJECT in architecture, and to recognise the highest level of design knowledge and skill

employed in addressing three influential themes of architectural design:

  • Problematic approach (intensity in problem solving)
  • Social and climate impact (responsibility and resilience)
  • Innovative response (originality and excellence)

 

In particular because this is a student diploma prize the jury were also seeking a project that within the freedom inherent in student work the project could also represent

  • Professionalism
  • Innovation and originality
  • Best practice example

In awarding the prizes the jury feels that these should show the widest possible diversity in selected projects.

On the 26th of November the jury spent a long time looking at some projects that were excluded by the mathematical algorithm, but that were thought worthy of further examination. The jury picked 14 projects  left out of the short list and after some debate, unanimously decided to add one project to the 30 short listed projects – 048 Berlin Palimpsest.

After the first day of deliberation, 10 projects remained to be discussed in the next phase.

 

On the 27th of November a more detailed group discussion ensued on each of these projects.

Faced with a high degree of variety in this year’s entries, portraying a range of different  approaches

and priorities, the jury treated the prizes accordingly, awarding projects that excelled in different ways.

Seven finalists were selected with reasoning illustrated below:

 

038: Re-Constructing Porto: the Massarellos school of construction

It tackles the problem of contextualising in a decaying urban fabric, a common preoccupation in many of our cities, looking for responsible urban regeneration. The school project tackles the brief by connecting it to its surroundings and its access points, by responding to the topography and existing imposing structures like the overhead bridge. It does this physically with the tower of the liftshaft, but also asserts its presence with the same sign. A more subtle expression of building forms and spaces diversify the school functions, as for example from the harsher laboratories on the ground floor to the airy, comfortable work spaces on the first floor. The project correctly combines regard for energy use and sustainability of materials with the characteristics of user needs. The layering of building materials, forms and juxtaposition of volumes, all hint at the didactic process of construction – which is the School’s role.

This projects is awarded with THE EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURAL MEDAL FOR BEST DIPLOMA PROJECT

 

048: Berlin Palimpsest. Repurposing Urban Fragments for Community Agency

 The project very elaborately proposes an inventive strategy for developing an industrial site in Berlin, responding to the current extreme environmental challenges of our cities and the intention of making Berlin into a zero carbon city by 20150. The Community is taken as the point of departure, and the different urban fragments and artefacts on site are reconsidered and put into a new urban sustainable grammar. The project addresses three scales of intervention:  the Urban strategy, the masterplan and a ‘repurposed’ Eis Fabrik. It contains the reuse of urban fragments, provides for specific biotopes and reprograms buildings and urban space, setting a coherent template for possible future urban regeneration.

For these qualities this project is awarded with ACE Prize for Societal Impact.

 

006: A Symbiotic Relation of Cooperative Social Housing and Dispersed Tourism in Havana Vieja. Development and model for architectural prototypes.

 Cuba is in a situation of transformation. The country is opening up for external investment and tourism. The intention of the project is to combine the needs of Cuban citizens, living in overcrowding and badly maintained buildings in the old city in Havana, with a possibly new economy of mass-tourism. The project shows a clear perspective in the analysis of the urban typology and morphology, establishing prototypes and showing how these principles might be used in actual projects.  The project is remarkable in its straightforward presentation, its  handling of the problem and in its innovative proposals.

The project is awarded the EAAE Prize for Intensity and Courage in Problem Solving.

 

008: Chandigarh: Stone, Steel, Timber. Kindergarden in a Natural Environment

This is a wonderfully poetic response to the programme; the site and the environmental conditions in Monsoon India. The structure is delightfully simple and perfectly suited to conditions. The plan allows for expansion and change; the raised deck provides for the safety of the children when the river floods and the building has an over-roof to shed water and allow for natural cross-ventilation. The details are all thoroughly thought-through and superbly sensitively scaled for the young occupants.

In all it is an impressively mature design and exquisitely presented and therefore receives  the UAUIM Prize for the Artistic Quality.

 

The Jury also awarded three Honorable Mentions

 044: Muziris [re] Discover

The jury particularly appreciated the richness of potential within the project, which creates an orderly superimposed grid of complementary activity above an existing conglomerate, giving this a new identity and historical reference.

058: Sub_Zero – Life Beyond Parking

 Two lots, two versions. Clean versus dirt, serenity versus movement.

The concept  proposes a reuse of an existing structure for various types of activities.

It is a successful case of urban revitalisation that gives back to the city a territory that became residual and only dedicated  to cars. The generated spaces are well mastered sceneries that create a friendly and dynamic atmosphere breaking the silence and darkness of the telluric deepness.

119: Amazonia Pier: Manufacturing an Architecture of Pleasure

 The project addresses relationships between economic patterns and urban form. The new pier in the words of the candidate ‘is a fantasmagorical critique of the globalisation processes’. This political statement takes form in a hybrid structure presented through a series of emotive drawings, intertwining consumers, tourists and manufacturing in a single location.

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